THE HOSPITAL

From the desk of University President Bill Brody

The other day, a friend of mine in the Midwest sent me a copy of a quotation from John Shaw Billings, the famed designer of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. This is from his speech on the occasion of the opening of the Hospital on May 7, 1889. Many of you may have read this before. But I thought it is so appropriately relevant these 110+ years later, that I reproduce it for you here:

“A hospital is a living organism, made of many different parts, having different functions, but all these must be in due proportion and relation to each other, and to the environment, to produce the desired general results. The stream of life which runs through it is incessantly changing; patients and nurses and doctors come and go; today it has to deal with the results of an epidemic, tomorrow with those of an explosion or fire; the reputation of its physicians or surgeons attracts those suffering from a particular form of disease, and as the one changes so do the others. Its work is never done; its equipment is never complete; it is always in need of new means of diagnosis, of new instruments and medicines; it is to try all things and hold fast to that which is good.”

The dynamic organism called The Johns Hopkins Hospital has thrived for more than a century through the creativity, innovation and hard work of our many doctors, nurses, staff and administrators who adapt, with Darwinian efficiency, to the rapidly changing environment in which they work, through the generosity of our donors, and by the trust of our patients and the communities from which they come.

Congratulations, Johns Hopkins Hospital—not for again being #1 in U.S. News & World Report, but for a century of maintaining excellence and adhering to standards of the highest quality. For these achievements, we are recognized around the globe.

Yes, our work is never done. We shall continue always “to try all things and hold fast to that which is good.”

CHANGE
September 10, 2002
Volume 6, Number 14